As Kristi Noem testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee today and prepares to testify before the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow, Defend America Action has released a new report calling out the Trump administration for ICE’s detention center spending spree, part of the rampant corruption across the federal government. Under the leadership of Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, ICE has been gobbling up warehouses across the country, selecting contractors administration staffers have financial stakes in and paying well above market rate.
Ever since Republicans tripled ICE’s funding, giving them a veritable blank check to terrorize American communities, this slush fund has been used to launch a massive expansion of its detention and processing facilities. Just like everything else in Trump’s government, administration officials are using their power to make themselves rich while Americans foot the bill. Content creator Jess Craven published a video breaking down this issue, which can be seen here.
Time and time again, ICE has massively overpaid for new detention facilities, whether it was a 300% markup in Socorro, Texas, a 75% markup in San Antonio, a 70% markup in Social Circle, Georgia, 50% markups in Hamburg, Pennsylvania and Surprise, Arizona, or a 33% markup in Hagerstown, Maryland.
Administration officials are making a killing from this shopping spree. Just ask DHS Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin; her husband’s PR firm inked a secret $220 million contract with DHS, even skirting competitive bidding rules for a taxpayer-funded ad campaign. Or Stephen Miller, who holds between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of stock in Palantir while ICE pays tens of millions of dollars to the company for software to identify and target immigrants. It’s all part of Trump and Republicans’ rank corruption that puts them first while putting the American people last.
A full copy of the report can be found here.
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